Custom Keepsake Box #3: Finished

One of the biggest challenges in the construction of this box was figuring out how to make the intersecting sections of the double miters strong enough . Normal end grain miter joints are pretty weak without using some sort of dowel of biscuit to reinforce them and in this case a double miter was even more challenging to strengthen. After playing with different options I decided to go with drilling multiple holes in the ends of the miters which will greatly add to the glue surfaces. I also decided to use a 2-part epoxy for the glue-up instead of wood glue.I used a 5/64” high speed cutter in the dremel tool to make the holes in the end-grain miters.

I went ahead and did the final sanding and applied 2 coats of satin poly to all of the components before the glue-up to make it easier to clean up any glue squeeze out.

The glue up went real good and I had very little sanding to do .

I decided to use 2” brass hinges to attach the lid which I had to mortise in so I set up the router table with a 1/2” straight bit and using stop blocks and running a couple of test pieces dialed in the correct distances for the mortises.

Set up for hinge mortises

Once one side of the mortises are done then I shifted the stop blocks over to the second set of reference marks to complete to other mortises.Clean up the round corners with a chisel and am good to go

So here are the photos of the box after the hardware is installed. Still have to apply another coat of finish and install to bottom liner. The completed box weighs in at 9 1/2lbs.

!!This was a challenging project and I learned a few things that will come in handy someday .